Walt Whitman loved books, the actual OBJECTS.
" Everyone knows Whitman as a poet and the author of one of the most studied books of American poetry,
Leaves of Grass. What is less well known is that Whitman was trained as a printer and throughout his life spent time in printing shops and binderies, often setting type himself and always intimately involved in the design and production of his books. Whitman did not just
write his book, he
made his book, and he made it over and over again, each time producing a different material object that spoke to its readers in different ways."
http://www.whitmanarchive.org/critic...anc.00150.html